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Friday, March 29. 2013

Will sing for sex: Song Sparrow

In March, our White Throated Sparrows and Juncos begin heading north to their breeding grounds, and our Song Sparrows begin arriving from their winter haunts somewhat further south in the US.

The ground-feeding Song Sparrow can be seen throughout the US. The tweety mating call of the male in Spring (here) is familiar to everybody who steps outdoors.

It is theorized that the guy with the best song gets the hottest chicks.

Posted by Bird Dog in Natural History and Conservation, Our Essays at 13:21 | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0)

Ski Okemo, almost virtually

Thanks to Google, all of your favorite runs.

Posted by Bird Dog at 12:52 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

I am just back from my assigned 1- hour Good Friday vigil at church (4-5 AM). So quiet, peaceful, serious, in semi-darkness (but with an almost -full moon shining in the windows) with the black-draped cross. I imagined being one of those who kept him company during his execution. I prayed for the souls of all of those I care about, and I prayed that his death would indeed redeem my sinful nature and my flawed soul. Lay it all at the foot of the cross, Pastor advises.

"Obscurity and a competence—that is the life that is best worth living."

They bought it for $3 at a yard sale

Excellent investment, but I would not have even noticed it. Those people have a good eye for junk.

A review of gun safes.

I just keep mine locked in a bedroom closet. That meets the legal requirement here. But, since I have a carry permit, can I carry at night?

New York State: Least free state in the US

Freedom in the 50 states, but mostly in the red states?

Hunters Begin Boycotting Colorado

What the heck happened to Colorado?

But why does marriage require a license?

It does not, really. There is "common law marriage."

15 Year Old Wisconsin Conservative Meets Bullying From Teachers

If Obama Really Wanted to Reduce Gun Crimes He’d Focus on the Inner City… But He Won’t Because It’s Too Obvious

The culture war was never a fair fight

Sunstein sees government officials as an enlightened “guardian class” ...

We can't even be trusted to feed ourselves anymore. Who anointed these guardians? Aren't they just lowly politicos - a widely-disrespected class of people in America?

Cuban tourism: Castro Cash Cow Gets Fatter than Ever

Do they go there for the whores or for the Poverty Porn?

Media Ignores Lavish Obama Vacations, Slammed Bush for Mountain Biking

Teachers’ Unions Don’t Empower Teachers

A Steyn rant: The end of free speech in Canada

Here's Hate Speech for you: I hate those Canadian court Thought Police jerks. So crucify me.

The Truth about Bob Woodward - and Nixon

Seduction: Tell them how special and smart they are

The Wisdom of Dan Quayle

America’s “Daddy Party” Needs To Grow Up

Let's cool it with the marriage wars

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 05:48 | Comments (24) | Trackback (1)

Niagara Falls, January, 1911

Posted by Bird Dog in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 04:56 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)

Thursday, March 28. 2013

More marriage confusion

If marriage is primarily a legal contract, then why can't two elderly sisters marry? It might very well be to their advantage, and they may love eachother deeply. Or does marriage have to involve sex? If so, who from the government is going to check to make sure that sex is happening? God knows, the world is full of sexless marriages.

And, yes, what about polygamy? Why not? It's not Christian but it is Old Testament Jewish and it is modern (quietly) Mormon - and Islam. How many wives did David have? I read that Solomon had 200 wives and 800 concubines, or maybe the other way around. I do not know when the Israelites gave up polygamy.

The whole topic becomes more and more absurd and confusing as cultural traditions are undermined. Gays can get married while the heterosexual people are now up to 50% childbirth out of wedlock. Crazy world. It's called cultural change.

Then I noticed this: Kagan ’09: ‘There Is No Constitutional Right To Same-Sex Marriage’. That statement signifies to me that she is an unwise person. The Constitution does not set up government to dole out rights to the people, but rather to protect the mostly-unlimited rights of a free people. But I am repeating myself.

Freedom and privacy require no "penumbra." Back to the US Constitution, the American social contract:

This list of rights should not be read to limit in any way any other rights of the people.

The powers not specifically granted to the federal government by the Constitution, nor prohibited by the Constitution to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Posted by Dr. Joy Bliss in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects, Our Essays at 16:05 | Comments (35) | Trackbacks (0)

The Meaning of Health "Insurance"

Obamacare is not medical insurance in any real sense of the term "insurance." It is set up to pay your medical bills. It is no freebie, however. It's expensive.

Coyote splains it one more time: The Meaning of Health "Insurance"

I have two annoyed comments, and a few brief questions:

- Would my hernia repair have cost me $18,000 to the hospital if there were no insurance?

- Obamacare will render my medical insurace plan, an old-fashioned family Major Medical, illegal next year. So I can't keep the insurance I like.

- Will it be illegal for businesses, and rich folks, to self-insure under Obamacare? How would that work? And what about people like me, who like to pay their doctors themselves? Will that be permitted? What if I want to take Granny to Switzerland for herbal treatments for her dementia?

Posted by The Barrister in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects, Our Essays at 14:19 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (2)

Snowy Oaks Quirrin

Hunting buddy emailed me a pic of his new Large Munsterlander pup, of the above name (born in Minnesota). Pup needs a real handle.

Posted by Bird Dog in Hunting, Fishing, Dogs, Guns, etc. at 13:33 | Comments (16) | Trackbacks (0)

Managing fisheries

The tragedy of the commons requires that fisheries be managed, somehow. The ways to do it can be debated, but there is no doubt that the conservation measures for Striped Bass have resulted in a remarkable resurgence of their populations (along with cleaner breeding waters in their rivers and bays).

In recent years, factory ships have, in just a few years, stripped the Northeast of our vast schools of Bunker (Menhaden) with the use of helicopter spotters. Those schools are foundational to our big fish.

The fishing industry of the Northeast US cleaned out the George's Bank populations years ago, pretty much emptied out the inshore Cod and Haddock populations, and is headed in the same direction with the Grand Banks. Furthermore, their trawls vacuum the sea bottom of every living thing, leaving a desert behind. Like strip-mining.

While I admire professional fishermen very much for their skills and daring, just as with hunting wild animals there have to be sustainable limits or the Cod would go the way of the buffalo and the Passenger Pigeon.

We posted about Atlantic Shad yesterday. Here's an article discussing why the once-great Hudson River Shad fishery was shut down a few years ago.

Image below: Atlantic Shad

Posted by The News Junkie in Natural History and Conservation, Our Essays at 11:13 | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0)

Thursday morning links

AVI likes Dunkin Donuts too

Do Millennials Stand a Chance in the Real World?

There Are No High Speed Trains And There Won't Ever Be

Pope Francis will wash the feet of prisoners in a youth detention centre near Rome on Maundy Thursday.

Hooray! April 4th Is Topless Jihad Day

She has a crush on a guy. Should she follow her feelings?

The Deconstruction of marriage

Why polygamy will eventually be legalized

Why do the young vote for dependency—when the essence of youth is a quest for independence?

California’s Golden Bureaucrat Snags $400K of Yearly Compensation – for the Rest of Her Life!

The Left Still Giving Corrupt Detroit Machine a Pass

Most Illegal Immigrant Families Collect Welfare

Senik on gay marriage:

I want a "leave me alone" society -- one where Christian schools can turn people away for rejecting their doctrine, just as gay rights groups can reject those who don't share their beliefs. I don't want us all to get along -- not because I'm misanthropic (well, not just because I'm misanthropic), but because I know that "consensus" is usually a fancy word for muting minority viewpoints. I want us all to be free to be annoyed with each other from our separate corners. Is that too much to ask?

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 05:33 | Comments (15) | Trackbacks (0)

Wednesday, March 27. 2013

More golf fun

These clips are stupid. Don't waste your time. (h/t Theo)

Posted by Bird Dog at 19:04 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0)

Why a BA is Now a Ticket to A Job in a Coffee Shop

McArdle: The number of jobs requiring high-skilled labor has declined.

People with BAs are driving people without them out of their "subprime", blue-collar jobs.

Posted by The Barrister in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 13:16 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)

In which the Supreme Court seems to be asked to define a word

Two confused thoughts:

1. Marriage. Everybody is writing about the gay marriage topic. How is marriage defined? Is the Supreme Court being asked to be a dictionary? To revise the dictionary? That's above their pay grade.

2. Is there a "right" to gay marriage? Isn't that the wrong question? The Federal government was never assigned the power to determine such personal things in a country in which the presumption of local and, most importantly, individual liberty is the centerpiece. We do not have, or need, delimited rights. Government has delimited powers (supposedly). I guess the issue had to become a federal case because marriage is not so much about a relationship, but, maybe unfortunately, about a legal status with many legal implications.

Posted by Dr. Joy Bliss in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects, Our Essays at 10:42 | Comments (27) | Trackback (1)

Weds. morning links

What Kind of Men Go to Prostitutes?

New England Ski History

Who invented Moonwalking?

Hobbes and the importance of ideas.

Eagle death at Nevada wind farm brings federal scrutiny

"The Beach Boys Shred 'I Get Around.'"

What Does the "Five Second Rule" Have to Do with Possibly Preventing Asthma and Allergies?

The real estate market’s demographic problem in “the most depressing” chart ever

Ann Coulter Decries “Epidemic” of “Wealthy People” Trying to Tell the Rest of Country Not to Carry Firearms

German Paper Warns Of Coming Ice Age

Why Liberals Still Detest Fox News

Rush: Amnesty a 'Death Sentence' for GOP

Buchanan: Who Killed the New Majority?

Reality must be faced. A generation has grown up rejecting the truths that its grandparents lived. And while population growth among our native born halted decades ago, scores of millions have come in from abroad to fill the empty spaces. And they are still coming. They like what Big Government has to offer, and seem uninterested in what the GOP has to sell.

In that case, you try harder to sell your product, change your product, or go out of business.

Twitter Caves to Vladimir Putin, Censors Content Within Russia

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 05:57 | Comments (21) | Trackbacks (0)

Tuesday, March 26. 2013

Those with OCD will not get this visual joke

Posted by Dr. Joy Bliss at 16:52 | Comments (17) | Trackback (1)

A serious kicker

Expertise is a beautiful thing. h/t Chicago Boyz

Posted by Bird Dog in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 16:12 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0)

Straight marriage is the real issue

I frequently disagree with Frum, but this is the reality today: Straight marriage is the real issue.

Just as in ancient times, traditional marriage is becoming a thing of the prosperous, educated, and tradition-minded. The solid citizens, the pillars of communities; the stable people with predictable lives.

In my humble view, marriage is, or can be, two separate things: a secular property contract, and a religious covenant. Both are quite serious matters. I happen to believe that it is a difficult and challenging, but rewarding, structure for a good life. Seems to be good for kids too, which should not be surprising.

Making relationships that work is not an easy thing, given how neurotic everybody is. It can be worth the trouble, however.

Posted by The Barrister in Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 13:05 | Comments (7) | Trackbacks (0)

Freedom is Slavery!

H/t People's Cube

Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 11:54 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Tuesday morning links

Desmond Tutu: Godfather of Hell

Yes, you thought so: today set to be the coldest March day in 27 years, March coldest since 1963

The Irrational (Yet Perfectly Understandable) Nature of Blood Vengeance

Whatever Happened to Treating Marijuana Like Alcohol?

The 'Uncle Tom-ing' of Ben Carson Begins

James Taranto: universal background firearms checks means that anybody can request one.

What the Frack? University **Wants** To Drill!

Obamacare Premium Spike Goes National

4 Signs of Obama's Incredible Shrinking Presidency

Our blood for their oil: China moving into Afghanistan oil fields

Of Soda Bans, Sodomy, Single Moms and Sycophants of the Nanny State

Soaring Social Security disability rolls headed for collapse

Govt. Spends More on Disability than Food Stamps, Welfare Combined

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 06:15 | Comments (8) | Trackbacks (0)

Monday, March 25. 2013

Three Cheers for the Nanny State?

The author of the NYT op-ed piece is Sarah Conly, an assistant professor of philosophy at Bowdoin College, the author of “Against Autonomy: Justifying Coercive Paternalism.”

I suppose my question to Prof. Conly would be to ask her how she might feel if I were in charge of the coercive paternalism. After all, I am sure I have more real life experience, a better understanding of human nature, more university degrees, and probably more expertise in various areas than she does.

The Liberal Fascists tend to assume that the paternalists would always see the world their way. What if the coercive paternalists were to view the world my way? Then what? Would the Sarah Conlys view it as perhaps oppressive?

I do not just object to the disparagement of the sense of "regular" people, or to the indifference to the freedom that is supposed to be the American heritage - I object to the incredible arrogance which verges on the insane.

Sarah, apply your coercive paternalism to your kids. That's where that instinct belongs. However, I would not be surprised if you send them to a Montessori school.

Image below via Never Yet Melted.